Re: [Lynx-dev] emulating tabs in Lynx

[Chuck Martin]

On Tue, Feb 08, 2005 at 10:50:57AM -0500, address@hidden wrote:
> 050207 Chuck Martin wrote:
> > Learn how to use Screen.
> 
> i used to use it all the time in the 1990s ,

I didn't mean to imply that you didn't know how to use screen.  I
included that step in response to you statement that "it's far too
complicated to expect an ordinary user to employ," since many
ordinary users may be unfamiliar with screen, or if they're familiar
with it, they may not have ever used it, and may not understand how
to use it.

> have you thought of writing up a small help doc
> to describe how to use Screen to do clever things with Lynx ?
> i would be willing to add it to my 'Lynx Help for Beginners' WWW doc,
> if you were to send it to me in an appropriate HTML form:
> you would be properly acknowledged as author.

No, I hadn't considered it before, but I will think about it if I can
find the time.  I'm always looking for ways to make more efficient use
of my time, and I don't normally think about it that others may find my
methods useful.

Once again, I sent my previous response directly to you, and failed to
send it also to the list.  I'm going to have to break the habit of
pressing 'r' and learn to press 'L' when responding to this list.
Since others may find the "using screen to emulate tabs in a nutshell"
useful, I'm pasting my previous response at the end of this message.

Chuck


My previous response:
---------------------

On Sat, Feb 05, 2005 at 07:18:55AM -0500, address@hidden wrote:
> 050205 Chuck Martin wrote:
> > If you use screen in the way that I described in my previous response
> > in the other thread, they will be downloaded simultaneously
> > by the separate Lynx sessions in each screen window.
> > Do you still think Lynx needs this capability?
>
> yes, i appreciate your detailed reply & will store it in my archives,
> but it's far too complicated to expect an ordinary user to employ.

I don't think so.  I think anyone who can understand how to use Lynx can
understand how to use Screen to emulate tabs.  Perhaps I went into too
much detail, giving the impression that it's more complicated than it
is.  That was partly because I wanted to show exactly how it's done,
and partly because I also included some information that it isn't totally
necessary to use Screen and Lynx together, but that I thought would be of
interest because it can make you much more efficient.  Here it is, in a
nutshell:

  1)  Learn how to use Screen.  You don't need to learn everything
      about the program.  Just enough to start it up and switch
      windows, since these windows will be your "tabs".

  2)  Enter this line in your lynx.cfg:

      EXTERNAL:http:screen lynx %s:TRUE

      You can also use this line as a pattern for other URL types,
      like file or ftp, and they don't have to use Lynx.  Your
      "tabs" can be running other programs like wget or lftp (try
      *that* in your favorite GUI browser that does tabs).

  3)  Learn how to activate the command in that lynx.cfg line by
      using "." and "," (see the lynx documentation).

I still included more information than necessary, especially in step #2
(ignore all but the first two lines of that step if you like), but I
think you should be able to see that it isn't as difficult as you portray
it.

> also, i would have to install Screen on my system, adding to bloat there.
> and can you in fact have  > 1  instance of Screen running simultaneously ?

As has already been pointed out, it's less bloat than adding that
functionality to lynx.  And yes, multiple instances of screen can be
running at the same time.  If you run the screen command outside of
screen, it starts a new instance.  If you run it inside of screen, it
runs the specified program (or a shell, if none is specified) in a new
window of the current instance.  I almost always have it running more
than once on my computers.

Chuck